Katy Abbott's (1971) music leads the listener through a narrative of sound, exploring concepts of home, place and human nature, frequently exhibiting a cheeky humour and cleverly juxtaposing contemporary flavours on traditional settings. Abbott's compositions have been performed, published and recorded around the world, brought to life by many of leading Australian ensembles and major symphony orchestras. Her work has been programmed in many festivals including 2018 VIVIDSydney together with Sydney Ideas and Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

A versatile creative talent, her body of work incorporates orchestra, chamber and music for voice, an area where she exhibits a particular flair. She completed her PhD in 2007 including a guide to writing for the voice as her thesis, working with Brenton Broadstock and Linda Kouvaras at the University of Melbourne. 
Abbott won the 2013 Boston Metro Opera ‘Gold Medal for Art-Song’ for her new song-cycle The Domestic Sublime and the 2011 Albert H. Maggs Award for Composition amongst many other prizes.
Abbott has 4 monograph discs on labels with ABC Classics, MOVE and Tall Poppies and a further pending ABC Classics disc of her orchestral work The Peasant Prince with Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra/Northey. Katy Abbott is Acting Head of Composition, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, the University of Melbourne.

Of Lithuanian heritage, composer Veronika Krausas was born in Australia raised in Canada, and lives in Los Angeles. She has directed, composed for, and produced multi-media events that incorporate her works with dance, acrobatics and video.

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Commissions and performances include Los Angeles Philharmonic, Penderecki String Quartet, Hopscotch Opera with The Industry, Ensemble musikFabrik, New York City Opera, the Lithuanian Ensemble Network, San Francisco Choral Artists and the Alexander String Quartet, Esprit Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, ERGO Projects, Continuum Music, Fort Worth Opera, and Motion Music. Upcoming performances include performances at the Tanglewood Festival and Ghost Opera, a new opera with Old Trout Puppet Workshop and Calgary Opera.

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She is a Professor at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Dr. Xinyan Li’s works have been featured at Carnegie Hall, China’s National Center for the Performing Arts, the 19th Nordic International Bassoon Symposium, Septembre musical de l'Orne, and the 44th and 45th IDRS Annual Conferences. She was invited twice as visiting composer by Aspen Music Festival, and she has been interviewed on Sweden’s national radio—Sveriges Radio, which also broadcast six of her compositions. Dr. Li has three works published by TrevCo Music Publishing, and her music has been performed by American Composers Orchestra, members of Eighth Blackbird, PRISM Quartet, and principal musicians of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis, Montreal, and Bergen Orchestras, as well as Orchestre National de France.

Her awards include ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, American Composers Orchestra New Music Readings, Tsang-Houei Hsu International Music Composition Award, IDRS Conference 2016 Schwob Prize in Composition, as well as grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Dr. Li received degrees from University of Missouri-Kansas City and China Conservatory of Music, and she has taught composition and music theory at New York Philharmonic Orchestra’s Very Young Composers Program and Pre-college Division of China Conservatory of Music.

Ingrid Stölzel (b.1971) has been hailed “as a composer of considerable gifts” who is “musically confident and bold” by NPR’s classical music critic. Her music has been described as “tender and beautiful” (American Record Guide) and as creating a “haunting feeling of lyrical reflection and suspension in time and memory” (Classical-Modern Review). At the heart of her compositions is a belief that music can create profound emotional connections with the listener.

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Stölzel’s compositions are performed worldwide, including the Thailand International Composition Festival, Festival Osmose (Belgium), Vox Feminae Festival (Israel), Festival of New Music at Florida State (USA), Beijing Modern Music Festival (China), Festival of New American Music (USA), and SoundOn Festival of Modern Music (USA), among others. She is a recent winner of the Red Note Composition Competition, the Robert Avalon International Competition for Composers and the Ortus International New Music Competition.

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She teaches composition at the University of Kansas. www.ingridstolzel.com